The present invention relates to a method for the transmission of user data objects from a data supply component or a data server to a telecommunication device of a user via a connection component, with profile information in a profile object of the data supply component indicating which type of user data objects the connection component or the telecommunication device is able to process on its own.
A method for the transmission or downloading of user data objects from a data supply component onto a telecommunication device, particularly designed as a mobile radio device, is currently being discussed. The starting point for such discussions is that the telecommunication device is located in a telecommunication network designed as a mobile radio network, in which data generally, and user data objects in particularly, are transmitted via a protocol specified by the WAP Forum (WAP: Wireless Application Protocol). It is further assumed that the data supply component of a data or content supplier is located in a further telecommunication network which is particularly embodied as an Internet Protocol-based network. To establish a data connection between the data supply component and the telecommunication device at least two different sub-interfaces are needed; namely an air interface on the one hand and a cable-based interface on the other. There is provision for WAP protocols to be used, as already mentioned, for bridging the air interface. By contrast, in the telecommunication network of the data supply component, HTTP (HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is used. Thus, since different protocols are used on the air interface and the network side, there is provision for a connection component to be used (in this instance, what is known as a WAP gateway) which adapts the user data to the various lower layers (air interface, e.g., WSP (Wireless Session Protocol) as a WAP; network side: HTTP). This type of WAP gateway also is generally capable of converting data types or formats (e.g., translating the file format “gif” into “for files of type image or still image).
Telecommunication devices such as mobile radio devices or mobile phones generally differ from each other in their characteristic features or capabilities. Thus, for example, the characteristics of the display devices differ greatly in some cases (e.g., in size and resolution) and thereby also their capabilities to be able to display or process specific file types or file formats. So that a data supply component or a data supply server in a network can obtain knowledge about the characteristics or capabilities of a WAP-capable telecommunication device of a user, the WAP Forum has standardized what is known as the UA-Prof (UA-Prof: User Agent Profile),[7], with the aid of which the characteristics of a WAP-capable telecommunication device can be made known on the network side (i.e., in the network of the data supply component). The method also takes into account the capabilities of a WAP gateway which handles the data transferred between telecommunication device and data supply component and can also modify such data. On the network side, the provision of suitable data by a server also results in the characteristics of the WAP gateway being relevant.
A description is given below, with reference to FIG. 1, for a general case of how a data supply component D receives the current UA-Prof of a WAP-capable telecommunication device T. Initially, upon registration of the WAP-capable telecommunication device T or the setting up of a WSP connection, what is known as a basic profile BP or basic profile information is transferred to the WAP gateway G. If the characteristics or capabilities of the telecommunication device T have been changed or expanded by an additionally-connected line component, such as an additional hardware component (e.g., color display), an additional difference profile DP1 or first difference profile information is sent with the basic profile as a first sub-profile information object to the WAP gateway G, as is depicted by step 1 (“1” in the circle). Both profiles, namely BP and DP1, if necessary, can be buffered and evaluated by WAP gateway G; cf., step 2 WAP gateway G can now for its part supplement the received profiles BP and DP1 by a separate difference profile DP2 or second difference profile information. This is advantageous when the WAP gateway G has particular characteristics or capabilities which differ from those of the BP and DP1 profiles sent beforehand by the WAP-capable telecommunication device T or which supplement these profiles. All three profiles are then transmitted in step 3 as a second sub-profile information object to the data supply component D. The data supply component D creates on the basis of all transferred profiles (BP, DP1 and DP2) a resulting overall profile or overall profile object RP for the WAP-capable telecommunication device T, as indicated by step 4 . The resulting profile RP, containing the individual characteristics of the WAP-capable telecommunication device T and the supplementary capabilities of the WAP gateway G and possibly of other network units, is the current UA-Prof and will be administered by the data supply component D.
During a WSP session the downloading of any data, particularly user data objects, can be initiated by a WAP-capable telecommunication device T by sending a data request message. Should the characteristics or capabilities of the WAP-capable telecommunication device have changed in the interim (i.e., after a WSP connection was first established), such as through connection of another additional hardware component, in or together with a data request message issued, a current adapted difference profile DP3 or a third difference profile information are transmitted in a first sub-profile information object to the WAP gateway G in step 5 and, if necessary, evaluated there according to step 6 . The remaining transmission of the basic profile BP and the difference profiles DP3 and DP2 in a second sub-profile information object between WAP gateway G and data supply component D in accordance with step 7 and the creation of the resulting profile in accordance with step 8 are undertaken in a similar way to the method described above. If the characteristics or capabilities of the WAP-capable telecommunication device have not changed after the first setup of the WSP connection, for a data request message issued, the method refers back to the profile previously transferred and buffered in WAP gateway G (cf. step 2) or at the data supply component (cf., step 4).
The principle for generating the resulting profile is fairly sophisticated, the resulting profile or overall profile being generated from the basic profile and any number of difference profiles.
The basic assumption is further made for the use and definition of the UA-Prof that a WAP gateway recognizes and suitably handles the data types transmitted to the WAP-capable telecommunication device; i.e., changes or converts them if necessary on the path from the data supply component to the telecommunication device. A typical example of this is the conversion of an image. Assuming that the telecommunication device can only display images of the “jpeg” type or format and that the data supply component transmits a “gif”-type image, the WAP gateway can convert the image in accordance with its capabilities from type “gif” to type or format “jpeg” and pass the converted image on to the telecommunication device on which it can then be processed or displayed.
This method is, accordingly, supported by UA-Profs, in that the WAP-capable telecommunication device initially specifies in its basic profile BP the ability to process or display images of type “jpeg.” The WAP gateway detects this specification, knows that it is capable itself of converting images of type “gif” into type “jpeg” and therefore specifies in difference profile DP2 that images of type “gif” also will be supported. On the data supply component side the resulting overall profile RP is generated. The data supply component, however, now no longer can distinguish between the original capabilities of the telecommunication device and the additional capabilities of the overall system of WAP-capable telecommunication device and WAP gateway. In this example, the server-side transmission (i.e., transmission on the data supply component side) of an image of type “gif” is now possible, with the gateway undertaking the corresponding conversion.
Problems may arise however, when the file types requiring conversion by the WAP gateway are enclosed (packed) into another data format which cannot be suitably handled by the WAP gateway. There are two main examples which illustrate this situation:
1. Digital Rights Management (DRM): The solution currently specified in the WAP Forum for managing rights of protected digital objects is based on the fact that the object is transported in a container file or in a container, which, for unencrypted objects is of type “application/vnd.wap.drm.message” and for encrypted objects is of type “application/vnd.wap.drm.content.” With unencrypted objects there is theoretically the option for a WAP gateway to access the enclosed object and to change it, but there is no explicit provision for this to be done. With encrypted objects the WAP gateway has no possibility of accessing the object since it does not have the key and the data, therefore, only appears as a binary packet. Even when the enclosed object is an image of the type known to the WAP gateway which, accordingly, could be converted into another type, this is not possible in the case described. The enclosed object would be passed on unchanged by the WAP gateway to the telecommunication device on which it would not be able to be displayed.
2. Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS): In the MMS the message is transmitted in the form of a Multimedia Message (MM) from a so-called MMS-Relay/Server (which serves as an MMS switching unit in a network) to an MMS Client, a specific application on the WAP-capable telecommunication device. In the solution specified by the WAP Forum the MM is a message with binary codes for presentation of the header fields which are not known to the WAP gateway. The messages are of type “application/vnd.wap.mms-message” and contain the objects to be transferred. The WAP gateway, in its turn, has the opportunity of extracting the objects from the message and adapting them to the features of the receiving telecommunication device. If an object of a specific type, requiring conversion by the WAP gateway, is integrated into the MMS message by the MMS Relay Server, the WAP gateway cannot perform its task, wherein the object arrives at the telecommunication device unchanged and cannot be used there. Furthermore, the fact that formation of an overall profile, as has been described above, makes it no longer possible to distinguish between how the integral components of the characteristics of the telecommunication device (possibly with additional hardware components) and the additional characteristics of the system made up of telecommunication device and WAP gateway also may have a negative effect if, for example, an object can be offered in different formats by the data supply component, of which some require a conversion by the WAP gateway to enable them to be processed by the telecommunication device, and others can be forwarded unchanged from the WAP gateway to the telecommunication device. Here, the server-side (i.e., from the data supply component) selection of a format which requires no conversion by the WAP gateway is advantageous since a conversion can lower the quality of the object, additional time is needed for downloading the object for conversion, computing power is required in the WAP gateway and the user can incur additional costs, depending on the billing model.
The present invention seeks to improve a method such as has been described with reference to FIG. 1, for example, such that a more efficient transmission of user data objects, particularly of encrypted or packed user data objects, is made possible.